The Painter’s Eye

I recall my summers during Art School in Washington, D.C. as pretty miserable. However, the district is fabulous in the fall.

You have until Oct. 8 to catch the National Gallery of Art’s first comprehensive exhibition of George Bellows’ career in more than three decades. George Bellows will include some 130 paintings, drawings and lithographs.

This exhibition will provide the most complete account of Bellows’ achievements to date, and will introduce Bellows to new audiences as it travels to New York and London.

Even though Columbus is Bellows’ hometown and our Columbus Museum of Art has the largest holdings of his work, landing such an exhibit is not easy. The logistics and expense rivals that of mounting any major music tour. And a road trip to D.C. to visit one of the many notable artists from Columbus who has made it to the international stage would make for a well-spent weekend.

This painting features the vigorous paint handling and immediacy to be found in Bellows’ work in oils. Painters sometimes refer to this as “drawing with the brush” as the form is developed rapidly with little drawing in on the canvas beforehand.

This is a technique not for the faint of heart, however, as this exhibit shows; George Bellows was a confident artist with a broad range of interests.

After its stop at the National Gallery of Art, the exhibition will move to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Nov. 15-Feb. 18, and will be at the Royal Academy of Arts in London March 16-June 9.

Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.